ABOUT THIS ALBUM

Album Notes

American composer G.S. Haynes has been quietly working to enrich the quality of our musical culture for almost 50 years. If surprise and delight have a single word in the contemporary classical world, for decades it has been Haynes. Teacher, performer, conductor, writer and lecturer as well as prolific composer, Maestro Haynes has - and continues to - weave his golden thread through the fabric of our musical times and into history.

Melody has always been central to the human musical experience. We learn our first little songs by memorizing the melodies, we can trace our life progress through bits of popular songs. Our language has imbedded melody in many frequently used phrases. Melody is the motivator in most of these compositions, the path that leads us to the beautiful moments and the exciting passages. The music of Haynes has always been known for his remarkable gift of melody. He is a prolific melodist, and his melodies always have motion. They announce the journey, and then become the wheels for the journey. The cohesiveness and logic of his melodic lines does not prevent surprise and wildness of flight, and never gets in the way of emotion.

Spensser Haynes had begun his musical journey by age 7, and quickly developed abilities at the piano, and with several stringed instruments. But composition was his great passion almost immediately. Fifty years later, he still speaks of writing music as an act like breathing, and still steadily produces compositions and musical ideas in a wide range of styles.

A decade of study at the piano provided a firm foundation in theory and an abundance of practical experience, but it was as a violinist - and already playing some of his own music - that he made his Town Hall debut and began to perform throughout the country. Most musicians will tell you his music is always playable and interesting, and it is always built on solid traditional technique, and designed to be effective played by live musicians for live audiences. This combination of solid practical experience and theoretical depth creates an excitement that also comes across in these recordings.

There is something unique about the intensity and depth of his involvement with his art and his friends that sets Spensser Haynes apart. There is an ease in his commitments, but always he is consistently there, and ready to give and to share. This comes across in person, in his ability to hold our attention seemingly without effort, and in a sense that life is good when he is around. This comes across in his music too. It always invites us in and treats us to a nice time.

For anyone who enjoys classical music, the music of G.S. Haynes is hard to ignore. It is very familiar, yet strangely unknown. Some people feel they know or have heard his work the first time they hear it. He speaks for the generation that believed in the power of Love. He hears the influence of Mozart, Brahms, Kallinikov, Stravinsky, Delius, Still, Anhalt in his own music. Others hear Bach and Beethoven, Tchaikowsky and Rachmaninov. We can also hear the influence of Charles Mingus and Joe Venuti and the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Page. Spensser Haynes is a musician who tries to bring in all the best that music contains, and make it all one, so it can contribute the best of our time to the long musical art tradition.

The music was recorded at Ivy Dawg Studio and mastered at The Pearl Factory, Hamilton, New Jersey USA. Most of this volume was recorded before the June 2008 upgrade of the facility. The three movements of the "Metropolis" violin and piano sonata, and the "November Nomads" solo piano work, were remastered after most of the new equipment was in place, but a few small software additions were later made to complete the improvements.

The recordings for this series are produced by The Publishers' Coalition from original edition scores under the supervision of the composer, to commemorate the first 50 years in music of G.S. Haynes.

People should know Mr. Haynes is a teacher of highest importance. My son looks forward to his lessons, and enjoys playing the violin. It is less than 2 years, he has become very good and reads music easily. He has met and played with other students from the area, and we have discovered Mr. Haynes takes an active interest in all his students. One of the other parents told us about his CD's, we had no idea he writes and performs such beautiful music. People like this are rare and wonderful. There should be more like him. Thank You Mr. Haynes for all you do, and for this beautiful music.

For some years the music of G.S. Haynes is known to me. It is music of the best quality, well constructed and sounding well in the ear and in the heart. My student now plays the "November Nomads" and it is a wonderful thing for her to hear it to play on this CD. I think for the advancing student there is much to be evaluated from this music, and for the great music lover this is very important work.

Recommended by a friend. Wow. If you’re not a classical music fan, try State ofEnchantment, progressive rock written/performed by GS Haynes. Then come back to thismusic. I hear Brahms, Mozart and Tchaikovsky blended together and brought into the21st century. A definite Must-Have.

Maestro Haynes was in our state, playing Christmas carols on h8is violin during our11-day power blackout. He was a real blessing of Christmas, and I am delighted to findthis CD of his beautiful music. God Bless You!

I am happy to write first on Spensser HAYNES. I know Spensser a long time, when I was
in New York City, and when he was in my home in Berlin. He stays in Dahlem for some
days, and together we go to the radio. In my library are stil lmany early works of Spensser
Haynes, Sonate Nr. 1 for geige/klavier, Klvier Sonate Nr.1, also Barock Sinfonie,
wonderful performance 1985 for 300 years of Johann Sebastian BACH in Berlin. I want
him to seen my sister also geigerin but I know he is married now to Englisch girl from
musical family. I say to you Bravo Spensser! Bravo Spensser! You will continue to make
much excellent music and many happy times but you must return to Belin now it is too
long!

Session Expiration Warning

Session Expiration

We need to talk.

The web browser you're using to surf the web is so old it’s embarrassing. But hey, we hope you consider us a friend, the kind of friend you can count on to tell you when there's spinach stuck between your teeth. So here it goes: every time you surf the web with that antiquated web browser it’s like you have spinach in your teeth. Every time you get online, spinach!

Look, we don't want you to be the butt of any more jokes when the sites you visit don't load or function properly. So please - for your own sake - click on one of the links for your preferred browser below, and get that spinach out of your teeth for good.